'They don't want to take Tricare and they don't want to take Medicare either,' said Bill Vagianos, a veterans advocate who is president of Brevard Veterans Memorial Center.

Written by

Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY

An estimated 620,000 Pentagon health care recipients -- a group that includes military retirees, National Guard members and reservists and the children of some active-duty troops -- struggle to find private doctors who will accept them as patients, according to a new government study.

Many doctors reported that they turn away these patients because they are unfamiliar with the Pentagon health care program known as Tricare. Others say they did not like how little they are compensated or how long it takes Tricare to reimburse them.